Sucker Punch shares new Ghost of Yotei details as the game’s non-linear campaign is explained

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The game's co-creative directors Nate Fox and Jason Cornell have spoken to Famitsu:

The main theme of this game is revenge. The main character, Atsu, has a big trauma in her childhood and goes on a journey to get revenge.

Fox and Cornell visited the game's setting, which today is known as the prefecture of Hokkaido, to research the game

We have received cooperation from various advisors regarding the depiction of the Ainu people and Ainu culture of the time. Like with the previous game, we have also thoroughly researched Japanese culture and incorporated it into this project.

I also went to Hokkaido to research Ainu culture, and had people knowledgeable about Ainu culture introduce me to museums and folk crafts, which I incorporated into the worldview of this work. By the way, I also went to the mountains with them and had the experience of picking wild vegetables.

Players will be able to approach the Yotei six in any order, and the game will also introduce new close combat weaponry. Both Japanese cinema and Western dramas have inspired the game.

In terms of an open-world adventure, Ghost of Yotei has the greatest freedom and biggest map of any open-world game we have ever made

 
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If you like melee focused, narrative heavy, low stakes, open world games then this is the game for you.


Sounds like they're upping the stakes in this one but we'll see. I do think the artstyle is genuinely gorgeous though and i'm hoping the narrative is great which is the most important factor too me in games nowadays. I personally think the game will be a banger.
 
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If you like open world games then this game will be a banger end of story.

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Pfft. If the first one is anything to go by, fuck no it won't be.

In terms of expectation and hype to actual end result, that was the most dull, uninspired, repetitive by-the-numbers open world I ever subjected myself to. Impressive polish and sheen, technically amazing, but utterly bereft of anything resembling enjoyment in exploration, discovery and uncovering worthwhile things to engage with.
 
Players will be able to approach the Yotei six in any order, and the game will also introduce new close combat weaponry. Both Japanese cinema and Western dramas have inspired the game.
I wish they would flesh this out so the order you choose truly affects the narrative and gameplay, beyond just the weapons you get access to (and perhaps some pros/cons to the order you choose). Would be nice if the remaining bosses react to who was killed, adapt their strategy, move elsewhere, have assassins stalk you etc. Like a game of chess. Something similar to the nemesis system that will never see the light of day. Though I doubt it would be that deep.
 
Pfft. If the first one is anything to go by, fuck no it won't be.

In terms of expectation and hype to actual end result, that was the most dull, uninspired, repetitive by-the-numbers open world I ever subjected myself to. Impressive polish and sheen, technically amazing, but utterly bereft of anything resembling enjoyment in exploration, discovery and uncovering worthwhile things to engage with.
This is the case for all open world games, GTA included.
 
They risk to have a disjointed plot if you can kill in any order Like shadows.

I like the idea but i doubt the plot is not gonna take a hit because of this, unless they made 358583838 different cutscene that include every possible kill order, like you kill number 3 and 5, and number 4 is gonna aknowledge that but it's still not as optimal as having a fixed order.

It could work if these 6 mofos were completely unrelated between each others but from the trailer, they look like a group.

Not that i had much trust in sucker punch writing since the post infamous 2 anyway...
 
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I'm there Day 1. But I'd rather it be linear with the same side quest style as the first one.
Having it open world with a kill list to do in any order makes it sound just like AC Shadows . . .

Step 1: Make a winning formula with the first game
Step 2: Stick with that formula for the sequel
 
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I hope this doesn't fall into the BotW/TotK trap of having no difficulty progression etc because you can do stuff in any order. That's the worst aspect of those games, I much prefer a good linear story with optional stuff on the side.
 
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Pfft. If the first one is anything to go by, fuck no it won't be.

In terms of expectation and hype to actual end result, that was the most dull, uninspired, repetitive by-the-numbers open world I ever subjected myself to. Impressive polish and sheen, technically amazing, but utterly bereft of anything resembling enjoyment in exploration, discovery and uncovering worthwhile things to engage with.

i liked ghost, but i only play ghost's type of game like once every other year, so the checklist thing didn't bother me since it was actually new to me.
 
Makes me worried, open-ended stories where you can choose paths usually suffers. I can't think of any example where it works for the better.
 
The non linear progression is the first thing they've said or shown about the game that actually has me a bit interested.
Hopefully it encourages actual exploration and isn't just another Ubi style GPS simulator.
 
The main theme of this game is revenge. The main character, Atsu, has a big trauma in her childhood and goes on a journey to get revenge.


Isn't that just straight up AC Shadow's premise?
 
pretty cool this one's going to explore the Ainu.
but we need to stop with this bigger and bigger open worlds, like who asked? did they research what players want and end up deciding?
Devs just end up having implementing repetitive mechanics to fillup the world with things to do.
I think this time I'll just play the story, and don't care getting all the swords, bandanas hats, shrines etc.
 
Bigger maps doesn't really excite me.

Tsushima already had a big enough map.

I'll probably stick to the main story, as I like a good revenge story.
 
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I like the idea but i doubt the plot is not gonna take a hit because of this, unless they made 358583838 different cutscene that include every possible kill order, like you kill number 3 and 5, and number 4 is gonna aknowledge that but it's still not as optimal as having a fixed order.
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They show Atsu holding that sash with the names crossed multiple times. Each time, she was showing it to someone off-camera. She may be showing it off to taunt/challenge the next boss. Given all the cutscenes are real-time these days, it shouldn't be hard to have all 6 bosses record lines for the 5 others and then weave the dialog in based on context. It's the bare minimum they should do. If it actually affects gameplay progression and difficulty scaling, even better. Would be cool if, for example, the Snake is super easy to beat early on, but much harder if he is the final boss and it all plays out differently, like he has several waves of guards/fortifications as he is now prepared for you, has additional move sets etc. Would make for excellent replay value. Though I doubt any of that will happen :/
 
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There goes any chance of the story having any sense of urgency or being as impactful as it could have been.

Stories are simply more intense when they are linear.

but the production values in the cutscenes look 2 generations better than anything ever in this genre so alright
 
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They show Atsu holding that sash with the names crossed multiple times. Each time, she was showing it to someone off-camera. She may be showing it off to taunt/challenge the next boss. Given all the cutscenes are real-time these days, it shouldn't be hard to have all 6 bosses record lines for the 5 others and then weave the dialog in based on context. It's the bare minimum they should do. If it actually affects gameplay progression and difficulty scaling, even better. Would be cool if, for example, the Snake is super easy to beat early on, but much harder if he is the final boss and it all plays out differently, like he has several waves of guards/fortifications as he is now prepared for you, has additional move sets etc. Would make for excellent replay value. Though I doubt any of that will happen :/
A boss having 2 lines that aknowledge that you already killed someone really is the absolute bare minimum, they can do nice things gameplay wise like you say but the plot is gonna take a huge hit anyway.

It is just supremely hard to make a memorable story where you can decide the order of killing, it means that those villains don't really interact between each other, they are gonna feel like separate entities in a check list and if you can chose the order, you don't even have a stronger, more charismatic final boss because everyone can be the final boss.

BUt it is very hard to imagine a game like this without a final boss so i can already tell that these 6 dudes are gonna be a ruse and the REAL villain is someone else, they basically spoiled the final part of the plot already, there is no way the ending of the game has 6 different cutscenes based on who you kill for last, there must be a 7th man.

Sucker punch overrate their own slickness.
 
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There goes any chance of the story having any sense of urgency or being as impactful as it could have been.

Stories are simply more intense when they are linear.

but the production values in the cutscenes look 2 generations better than anything ever in this genre so alright
Hard to be worse in term of cutscenes when the only opponent is fucking ubisoft.
 
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Non-linear just like AC shadows. This is going to be a fucking disaster. GoT's campaign being a fairly linear adventure made it rise above the open world trash ubisoft puts out.

Lets hope they know what they are doing but after playing the awful AC shadows campaign, I dont want to play anything like that ever agian.

If I was the CEO of ubisoft, i would fire every single person responsible for that awful campaign structure, narrative and dialogue.
 
It'll be interesting to see how this works. In AC shadows you are funnelled towards taking out bosses in order due to the level requirements linked to their story threads. In this way, you are forced to complete side quests to level up, so that you can prepare for the next boss.

I'd be quite happy if SP did away with levelling up the character. It isn't especially realistic, and certainly doesn't add any more fun to AC Shadows. I'd prefer it they went the recent Legend of Zelda route, where you may need certain abilities to complete certain quests, but you can still do them in any order.
 
Non-linear just like AC shadows. This is going to be a fucking disaster. GoT's campaign being a fairly linear adventure made it rise above the open world trash ubisoft puts out.

Lets hope they know what they are doing but after playing the awful AC shadows campaign, I dont want to play anything like that ever agian.

If I was the CEO of ubisoft, i would fire every single person responsible for that awful campaign structure, narrative and dialogue.
Tbf even with a linear plot, ubisoft can't write for shit...
 
Hard to be worse in term of cutscenes when the only opponent is fucking ubisoft.
And Team Ninja .... :messenger_tears_of_joy: :messenger_poop:

Now, AC Shadows is a fucking beautiful game, its actually up there with the prettiest games ive ever played when it comes to environments.

But the cutscenes are atrocious, ALL of the budget/talent went to making the actual game world.

If they:

- Changed mission structure
- shortened the campaign length
- improved quality of cutscenes to Horizon level
- Improved the liveliness of the open world... make it actually feel lived in, increase the random events that happen (theres literally almost nothing that happens)

They'd have a masterpiece

Only R* should be allowed to make open world games going forward. honestly. everyone else sucks at it, vast majority. theres a few other solid devs
 
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The Ainu stuff is honestly very interesting to me.

They risk to have a disjointed plot if you can kill in any order Like shadows.
Freedom vs focused storytelling is gonna be the dilemma of this game imo.

Let's hope they find ways to resolve it.
 
Assassin's Creed RPGs have the same exact mechanics, the only difference is no Assassin's Creed has ever been a game of the year contender like Ghost of Yotai already is.
 
BUt it is very hard to imagine a game like this without a final boss so i can already tell that these 6 dudes are gonna be a ruse and the REAL villain is someone else, they basically spoiled the final part of the plot already, there is no way the ending of the game had 6 different cutscenes based on who you kill for last, there must be a 7th man.
Yeah they already hint that there is a larger "purpose" that she finds while on this revenge quest, likely related to the Ainu people and the Shogunate's ruthless expansion during that period. May be why the Wolf family was wiped out in the first place. That may lead to the actual final boss (perhaps all out rebellion against the Shogunate itself)
 
The non linear progression is the first thing they've said or shown about the game that actually has me a bit interested.
Hopefully it encourages actual exploration and isn't just another Ubi style GPS simulator.
Ubisoft has been doing non linear open world progression since a long time.

Oldest game I remember having it is Farcry 5.

I uninstalled it once I saw each boss had a set area and I needed to do open world stuff to reach them. Seemed too big and kinda tedious.
 
I haven't kept up with how authentic they attempted to make Tsushima (if they did at all), but I hope they don't pull an Ubisoft and AC Shadows as far as mentioning how they interacted with the cultural history of the area and then absolutely shove their foot, leg, and torso into their mouth. Otherwise, I am interested. Just give me a gritty and visceral revenge tale in a believable world with tight gameplay and I'll invest myself.
 
I think AC Shadows permanently damaged my brain. Every piece of news I see for Yotei feels way too similar to that game and it's lowering my expectations..:messenger_hushed: PLEASE execute it better. A big plus for seemingly including Ainu culture into the game though, I think they could've easily left them out but chose not to.
 
I think AC Shadows permanently damaged my brain. Every piece of news I see for Yotei feels way too similar to that game and it's lowering my expectations..:messenger_hushed: PLEASE execute it better. A big plus for seemingly including Ainu culture into the game though, I think they could've easily left them out but chose not to.
Ghost of Yotei might end up cathartic for you. Like, "yes!!! I knew that's how ubi should have done, you fuckers".

Also Pardon my bad writing skills
 
Wonder how SP managed the free killing order of the 6 bossess without affecting the writting/Story. The premise of the Game is basic (Revenge) so hope they gameplay is great because they writting could be flat, not interesting.
 
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